Contribute 3 Tutorial

The Division of Student Services has agreed to provide one license of Macromedia Contribute 3 to each of its programs. If additional licenses are needed, a $35 charge will be billed to the program. Written authorization from department management must be submitted to the Student Services webmaster at sswebmaster@csulb.edu upon request of additional Contribute licenses.

Step 1: Establishing a Connection

A. Connect to Contribute Publishing Server

Contact the Student Services Division web master at sswebmaster@csulb.edu to be added to the list of Contribute connections to the Contribute Publishing Server. To set up the connection, launch the Contribute 3 program.

Enter connect:cps.aa.csulb.edu into the address field.

When asked for a username and password, enter your Campus ID (ie: 000012345) for the username and your BeachID password (same as Beachboard/MyCSULB) for the password. If you are not sure what your password is, you can attempt to recover your password by following these instructions or contact the Technology Help Desk at (562) 985-4959.

After you press OK, it will automatically validate the connection. Please wait for this process to fully complete.

You will be presented with this dialog, click on OK.

You are now ready to begin editing your web site with Contribute3.

B. Types of Roles in Contribute 3: Publishers vs. Writers

A new feature in Contribute 3 is the ability to assign different connection types depending on user roles. A publisher role is assigned to a user who has rights to write web content and publish it to the web. A writer role is assigned to a user who only has rights to write web content; writer keys do not allow publishing to the web. Once a writer has drafted web content, he/she may send the content for review to a user with publishing rights.

Step 2: Editing a Web Page

Click on Edit Page on the toolbar (or go to Select File > Actions > Edit Page) to change to the Contribute browser to the Contribute editor.

You cannot edit a page if the page is locked--that is, if someone else is currently editing it. When you browse to a page, the message area under the toolbar indicates whether you can edit that page.

You may now edit anything within the "editable region," which is called LAYOUTBODY. Text changes and the addition of graphics may be made in the LAYOUTBODY. If changes outside of the LAYOUTBODY are needed, please contact the division webmaster at sswebmaster@csulb.edu.

A. Editing Text

The text toolbar at the top of the editor works very much like those in Microsoft Word or any other editor. You can italicize, bold or change the or color of your text. Example: to make the text bold, highlight the text, then click on the "B" located on the toolbar.

B. Check Spelling

Make it a common practice to check the spelling on all of your web pages. To check the spelling on a page click on Format > Check Spelling.

C. Creating Text and Image Links

In Macromedia Contribute, you can make text or images in your web page act as links. When a visitor to your website clicks a link, specified text or an image, the browser takes the visitor to another web page or file, or starts their e-mail application.

To create a link, select the text or image that you would like to link and then click on one of the following option in the Link dropdown menu:

Drafts and Recent Pages: A current draft or a recently published page on your website

Create New Page: A new web page, which Contribute creates at the same time as the link

Browse to Web page: An existing web page on your website or on another website

E-mail Address: An e-mail address

File on My Computer: An existing file on your computer, such as a Microsoft Word or PDF file

If you don’t know which option to select or change your mind during the process, the Insert Link dialogue box gives you the opportunity to change your mind. Notice when you select an option, the dialog box displays text boxes corresponding to each type of link.

D. Inserting Images and Photographs

At this time Contribute web content managers are unable to add tables to websites. Contact the Student Services Division webmaster to request tables or the deletion of tables from your webpages.

E. Changing the Title

The title of a web page appears in the top left corner of a browser.

To change the title of a page click on "Page Properties" located at the top righthand corner of Contribute 3 while in editing mode.
Type in the new title in the title field.

F. Tables

Tables are containers that format the text and images in columns and rows.

At this time Contribute web content managers are unable to add tables to websites. Contact the Student Services Division webmaster to request tables or the deletion of tables from your webpages.

Step 3: Creating a New Page

Either select File > New Page or click the "Create New Page" button at the top of the Contribute document window.

The option that is available to you for creating a new page is making a "Copy of Current Page," which allows you to make a quick copy of the formatted CSULB template currently used. Rename the current page and make your changes to the text and graphics. Now you have a new page that is consistent with the rest of the Division of Student Services Web site. You can add any number of pages in the same way, maintaining and creating pages quickly and easily. Do not use the second option, "Blank Web Page," which tells Contribute to make something totally different than the existing page and CSULB template.

Step 4: Publishing a Web Page

Contribute gives you two options to finish your work session. If you are not quite ready to show the world, you can select Save for Later. Just as the option implies, Contribute will save the work to your computer and close the page, but it won't upload the page to the remote Web site. That way, you can work on the page later.

If you’re ready to show the public users, however, select Publish. Since you are already connected to the Web site, in just a few seconds a message will appear: Congratulations! You've published your page on the Web site.

Adding Forms and Dynamic Content

Due to accessibility issues, web content managers are not able to use Contribute 3 to edit or add forms and dynamic content If you would like to use forms or dynamic content on your site, please contact the division webmaster at sswebmaster@csulb.edu.

System Requirements for Macromedia Contribute 3

The Division of Student Services will provide Contribute 3 software for the Windows platform only. However, if a program chooses to purchase its own software for Mac, the specifications are also listed below.